Prosecutions update

Trucking company fined over fatal low loader incident

Brisbane-based trucking company Truck Gleam Pty Ltd was fined $40,000 in July this year, over an incident which resulted in the death of a female motorist.

The court heard that on 6 June 2001 a 23 tonne mobile crane dislodged from one of the company's low loaders as it was being driven southbound on the Gateway Arterial Road at Nudgee in Brisbane.

The crane crashed through a concrete barrier and collided with a northbound vehicle driven by a member of the public. The driver of the vehicle died five days later from injuries sustained in the collision.

The Workplace Health and Safety Queensland investigation found that the crane dislodged from the low loader due to inadequate lashing restraint chains, which were calculated to have been 312 per cent overloaded.

The 10 millimetre chains used on the company's low loaders did not comply with recommendations of the Load Restraint Guide 1994.

The court heard the company director had fully cooperated with the investigation and had expressed deep remorse over the incident. Truck Gleam Pty Ltd has since taken steps to ensure that such an incident could not occur again.

(Brisbane Industrial Magistrates Court, July 2005)

Roofing company fined over worker's death at convention centre

Fultoncote Pty Ltd was fined $60,000 in July 2005 after a worker fell to his death from the roof of the Gold Coast Convention Centre.

The court heard that the deceased worker was an employee of Mulherin Rigging and Cranes Pty Ltd, a company contracted by Fultoncote to provide riggers to install acoustic panels on the roof of the convention centre.

The worker sustained fatal injuries in February last year after falling more than 14 metres through a void in the roof to the concrete floor of the exhibition hall.

The Workplace Health and Safety Queensland investigation revealed that the worker was not wearing any fall arrest equipment at the time of the incident.

It also revealed that Fultoncote Pty Ltd had not conducted a formal risk assessment or provided any instruction to the workers on how they were to replace the acoustic panels.

The sub-contracted Mulherin Rigging workers undertook their duties at the direction of Fultoncote Pty Ltd.

Mulherin Rigging and Cranes Pty Ltd was fined $55,000 in the Southport Industrial Magistrates Court on 6 April 2005 over the same incident.

(Southport Industrial Magistrates Court, July 2005)

Pipi Holdings Pty Ltd fined after child drowns in cattle dip

Pipi Holdings Pty Ltd was fined $40,000 in April this year, after a child drowned in a cattle dip on a dairy property at Commissioner's Flat (near Caboolture).

The court heard that a boy aged two was at the dairy with his mother, whose husband worked at the property.

While his mother assisted her husband and the farm manager with milking, the boy wandered some 23 metres from the dairy to an unguarded cattle dip where he drowned.

Industrial Magistrate Mr T. A. Allingham commented that while it was appreciated a rural property may be a friendly place, generally open to visitors, the dairy and surrounds was nonetheless a workplace.

The incident occurred in March 2003. The company has since taken steps to ensure adequate safety controls are in place to ensure such an incident does not recur.

(Caboolture Industrial Magistrates Court, April 2005)

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